Amin Abbas 

Uncharted movie, based on the video game franchise published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog, premiered in UAE on Feb. 9, 2022.

The movie stars Tom Holland as Nathan Drake, Mark Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan along with Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle and Antonio Banderas in supporting roles. In the movie, Drake is recruited by Sullivan in a race against Santiago Moncada (Banderas) and Jo Braddock (Gabrielle) to locate the treasure of the Magellan expedition.

The premiere was packed with fans who were excited to see it on the big screen.

Faisal Hashmi, a film director shared his feedback about the movie: “I’ve never fully played the games for the Uncharted series but I’m very aware of the characters and the brilliant action scenes it’s known for.”

“So, I went into this movie as more of a casual fan and I wasn’t disappointed. Video game movies usually have a bad track record of adaptations but I felt that Uncharted really captured the action-adventure spirit and humor of the game series and some of the action scenes really had the same thrilling feeling that the games provided. It was clearly made by people who appreciated the game and wanted to please both fans and newcomers,” he added.

A representative of Asus Middle East shared how: “We were very pleased to participate with Empire Entertainment and PlayStation for the release of ‘Uncharted’ as everyone is excited to see Nathan Drake on the big screen.”

The main series of games follows Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter who travels across the world to uncover various historical mysteries.

The main series began with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, released on the PlayStation 3 in 2007, followed by its sequels Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009), Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (2011), with the final installment, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, released on the PlayStation 4 in 2016.

A prequel, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, was released for Sony’s PlayStation Vita handheld system in 2011, followed by the card game spin-off Uncharted: Fight for Fortune in 2012. A standalone game to the series, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, was released in 2017, with Chloe Frazer as the game’s playable protagonist.

The series is successful, having shipped more than 41 million units, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. The main series has been widely credited by critics and video game publications for raising the standards of single-player video games, praising it for high production values, quality in storytelling, character design and animation, voice acting, realistic graphics, technical innovation, musical score, gameplay mechanics, and delivering an enjoyable cinematic gaming experience to players.

The latest release of the Uncharted franchise, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, a remastered version of A Thief’s End and The Lost Legacy, was released on Jan. 28, 2022 for PlayStation 5 and a Microsoft Windows version will be released later this year.

Uncharted movie entered development in 2008, with producer Avi Arad stating that he would be working with Sony Pictures to develop a film adaptation of the video game series.